Leah's Mystery Ailment

So if you and I are friends on Facebook, you'll have seen all my posts about Leah's mystery disease. But if not, I'll bring everyone up to speed.

Last Friday, I noticed that Leah slept all day long. As in, I think she was awake for approximately 3 hours. Whenever we would move her at all, she would scream like she was in pain. She wasn't eating very much either.

Overnight, I noticed that she was getting really, really hot. Around 5AM, I took her temperature and it was 101 under her arm, or about 102 core temperature. I knew this was not good, so I called my mom for advice, who suggested Tylenol and a sponge bath. This worked for a while, but when she was still not eating, was still screaming when we touched her, and was still listless we decided to call the doctor.

The doctor on call returned our call almost immediately and suggested that we go to the ER. We had been mulling over that possibility all day. Leah, when healthy, has turned into an extremely active and extroverted baby, so this was totally unlike her. We took her to the ER, and I will give Mary Wash Hosp credit, they saw her immediately--it was so fast I thought they were calling me up for more paperwork and instead the nurse asked where the patient was. Having sat in the MWH waiting room for 5 hours with a broken leg, I was impressed.

So they did the standard tests, took her temp and pulse and oxygen rates, her temp was 100.7 when we got there. They did a urinalysis and drew blood (fun for mom on both accounts--why do they make moms hold down screaming babies for things like catheters and needle sticks?!) and then we got sent to a waiting room.

I had left in such a hurry, I hadn't even stopped to consider packing her diaper bag, and by now she was starting to get a little hungry. The nurse found us some formula and I called my sister and asked her to bring over some more. The doctor finally came back after a couple hours and told us that the urinalysis was clear and the blood didn't show anything alarming. His best guess was that it was some sort of virus that would eventually burn itself out with the fever. He told us to follow up with the pediatrician on Monday and that they would call us if anything serious turned up.

We went home and waited it out. She actually seemed to be improving on Sunday, as she was a bit more lively and eating better. She was not sleeping at night, however. I think the Friday sleep turned her days and nights all around, and so we were up ALL NIGHT. Monday morning, Michael called the doctor while I tried to doze for a while, and we got an appointment. I took Leah up and they gave her a check up and again, couldn't find anything. I took the initial lab results with me and Dr. Crane said nothing points to anything suspicious. Leah's fever was down, but she had developed a nasty rash. Dr. Crane said that oftentimes if a virus is to blame, at the end of its lifecycle it will manifest as a rash and that's how you know that the virus is dying off. She suggested more rest, feed her what she would tolerate, and continue the Tylenol for pain.

We got home and there was a call from MWH's lab asking me to call back, which made me very nervous. I called and spoke to the doctor, who said they had possibly found a bacteria in one of the cultures. It was a common bacteria and more likely than not, it was from her skin and had just found its way into the sample, but they would know more in 24 hours and would call back if it required medical attention.

To date, we haven't heard from them and it's been 48 hours since I spoke to them. This is hopefully good news. Today Leah is back to being her normal self, which is to say a total ray of sunshine. She's back to giggling, smiling, babbling, snuggling, etc. Her sleep is not totally normal--she woke up 3 times last night, but each time after a feeding or a pacifier, she went right back to sleep, unlike on Monday night when she was up from 11:30 to 4:30 and I wanted to kill myself (thanks again to Melissa for coming so Mom could have naptime!). We'll see what happens, we have a big week coming up with our travel next week, so I'm trying to take it easy now so that she'll be well rested for the journey to New York. I know she will be good medicine for her PopPop and seeing him doing better will be good medicine for me, so fingers crossed it all goes well.

Today's Update!

Today Leah had her first doctor's appointment with our chosen health professional for her. It was a hard choice--we had a lot of great recommendations. Pediatricians are one thing that people are totally passionate about! Ultimately, though, we decided to stick with our family practice in Fairfax. It took me years to find a doctor I actually like and feel comfortable seeing, and as a bonus, I like all of Dr. Leonard's associates, so I called up there. I was told Dr. Leonard isn't taking on any more patients but was offered a choice of two of his associates. We settled on Dr. Kathleen Crane, whose specialty is listed as pediatrics. I saw her a year or two ago for a sinus infection and thought she was great, a little less militant than the other associate we were offered, so she was it! You can find them at www.fpfairfax.com if you need a doctor, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Leah, as you all know by now, HATES riding in the car. She screams whenever the car stops. The minute we are moving, she settles down, but if the car stops for any reason--getting gas, a red light, a stop sign, I am waiting patiently for a squirrel to cross the street--she freaks. And you know Virginia, we've got nothing if it's not traffic lights, and my luck is to always hit them red! UGH! So anyway, we did fine till we hit Fairfax and then she was unhappy while we went through the lights. The weird thing is, the minute I take her car seat out of the car, she settles right down. And thus it was when we arrived. I pulled the carseat out of the car and she went to sleep. Weirdo baby!

First problem of the day was that I seem to have lost my insurance card. I got Mike to fax a copy of his up to them, so that was fine. The appointment went rather well, although I forgot her discharge records, so I will bring them next time so they have a complete history in their files. The nurse brought her in and weighed and measured her. This morning before we left I was looking at her and I thought she was getting a little bit chubby, but I was surprised to discover she now weighs 9 pounds 4 ounces! And she is now 21 inches long. Faye, the nurse, said she hoped she didn't have to give her a shot today and then we met with the doctor.

Dr. Crane gave her a thorough going over. She was surprised to hear that we weren't seeing Dr. Leonard and I told her that the front desk told me that he wasn't accepting new patients. She said she didn't think that was true and she would check for us. I told her that was fine but as long as Leah was seen there, I didn't really care too much. And even though it's been a while, she remembered seeing me for my infection, which I thought was pretty awesome!

Dr. Crane pronounced that Leah is healthy as a horse. She is very alert and quite strong in the legs. She said that we are off to a great start with her and to keep doing what we are doing--her sleep schedule is great, her baby acne is clearing up nicely, her heart and lungs are good, she has good circulation, the whole 9 yards.

And then it was determined it was time for her second hepatitis shot. I felt badly for Faye, I felt badly for Leah, but I was worried for me. I have an unsettling history of fainting when I see needles. So Dr. Crane suggested I give Leah a bottle while we waited, which Leah only too happily partook of and then Faye arrived with the needle, fretting. She showed me where to hold Leah and prepped her little leg and then it was showtime. Under the circumstances, I thought it would be cool to make a little joke, so I said to the nurse, "Just don't miss and hit me instead" which frankly was pretty brave of me to joke like that. But Faye was so focused, she said, "If I miss and hit anyone, it'll be myself." So anyway, I kept my eyes on Leah's face, and good thing because I got to see that "WTF?!" look that hit her face the minute the needle went in. Literally, that look said it all. And then she opened her mouth and screamed like hell. And wouldn't stop screaming, poor baby. I hugged her and snuggled her, but I was paying for it, you can be sure, and consequently, she screamed the entire ride home, not caring at all that the car was moving. I came home and we both took a nap. Next month's appointment involved 4 shots, and I've already told Michael that he can be damned sure he's taking the day off for that one. I'm going to have a heart attack.

So she's fat, healthy, and partially immunized. She and her daddy are upstairs having some daddy and girl time. In about 30 minutes, she's going to watch LOST with me, and then I'll see if she wants to go to bed or if we're going to pull an all nighter. Busy day tomorrow--dump run, post office run, company for an hour or two in the afternoon, so I want her to be fresh, since she'll be in the car a lot. We'll see what happens!